Piltdown Man

English

Proper noun

Piltdown Man

1. (taxonomy) A supposed early human theorized from bone fragments said to have been found in a gravel pit in Piltdown, England, in 1912, but later identified as a forgery.
   • 1914, Henry Fairfield Osborn, Men of the Old Stone Age: Their Environment, Life and Art‎^[1]:

     The Piltdown man of Sussex, England. Antiquity variously estimated at 100,000 to 300,000 years. The ape-like structure of the jaw does not prevent the expression of a considerable degree of intelligence in the face.

Synonyms

• Eoanthropus dawsoni

Derived terms

• Piltdown man
• Piltdown men

 

Translations

forged bone fragments of an early human

• German: Piltdown-Mensch (de) m
• Portuguese: Homem de Piltdown m